The long dining table glittered with different kinds of wines in flutes.
    As usual, the other Cruises walked in one by one. My aunts and uncles, and cousins. We lived in that mansion at a rough count of twenty. Not mentioning the large staff that lived outside in the quarters.

      I was quietly seated on the headchair, the same one my father used to sit.

   As soon as everyone was seated, Aunt Becka rose in her black night gown. Yes, we only wore black clothes around the house. It was a sign of respect for our founders, and all the deceased in our family.
      "Wow, you all look great people. Hope your day at your schools went on well." She paused and looked at every one of us. Her light gray eyes, skittering above our heads like arrows.

   "Okay. As we all know, today, being the eighteenth, we're bound to light up the red candles in the attic." Those family gray eyes rested particularly on me.
  "And as Agatha has fully turned eighteen, she's old enough to take up her duties to this family now."

I said or showed nothing.
     Becka was the toughest in the family, she'd been born second to dad, the only male among five siblings. With him gone, Becka had taken up the responsibilities of handling family matters.

   "Let's all toast to, Agatha's coming of age." She proposed, and we all raised our flutes.
      "To Agatha," they chorused with faint smiles.
Nobody smiled a lot in the family. And I had gotten used to that. Not like I had the power to choose where else to have been born in.

   Few words were shared amongst us at the table. With the few being only about the family company in Mississippi.

"Agatha?" Becka called.
     I glanced at her with little interest. If my mind could speak up, the world would understand what I had gone through, and still going through.
        "Is anyone bothering you in school?"
Did she? No. Luckily I didn't school with any of my cousins. Had no close friend to run her mouth to Becka about the William.
    I shook my head, then focused on my food... The snails felt so, alive, slimy, and disgusting.
Couldn't I have normal food like vegetables, or pizza?
        Apparently, we only ate sea foods, with a few exceptions on special occasions.

Feeling already full without taking a single bite, I pushed the platter forward, and picked my wine... Suddenly, pairs of eyes were glued on me.
    "Didn't like the food?" Becka asked from my closer right side.
I only glared at her, before standing with my flute.
    "You know you can't leave the dining till-"
A hiss shot from me, too inhumane and frightening even to myself.

They all gasped jerking. But not Becka, she just grinned.
  "Beautiful. It's coming back to life." Her slender frame rose, while grasping my arms.
She took away the wine, and emptied it in herself. "This calls for a celebration Agatha. The One is awakening."
        I looked at the others. My cousins were terrified to their toes...

   "Soon, we'll find him. Then you can Crown whichever sorry ass it is as the Damned." Becka rejoiced kissing my forehead. I pushed her, then stomped out of the dining. Catching on her voice from the dim-lit hallway.
        "Soon, we'll have our Leader back to us."
There were a few claps.
  Which made my eyes burn in salty wetness as I ran up the stairs... How could they?
*                 *                *

     Midnight struck, and I started lighting the fat red candles one after the other. They watched, their mouths repeating a familiar chant, "Soul after soul, you will be reborn. Generation after generation, you will live."
        Above each candle, was a painting of our ancestor. One by one, I lit thirty of them, stopping at the most important one, Athaga Cruise. He was the eldest, the founder of our clan, our family. For many generations, he had been reborn over and over.
  No matter how much they loved and respected him, I hated that old man. Because of him, I was living like a lone wolf in the world. Because of him, so many had died. And now, he wanted to come back!

       I scowled at his black and white portrait, cursed his never dying soul in my heart.

A hand was rested on my right shoulder. "We're glad you will be hosting him back to existence Agatha."
    Agatha! I hated, felt disgusted by that name. It wasn't mine. Everything I had was Athaga's. It was his name spelt backwards.

       I brushed off the hand and walked past Becka to stand behind the others... She took over, facing us while the brightness from the candles illuminated her red hair an evil amber.
    "This tradition has kept all of us alive. We all know what happens to whoever rebels against it... My brother and his wife had been stupid to think that they could take away Agatha, to break this chain. And look where they are now, decayed, and forgotten by the earth. You all carry Cruise's blood, doesn't matter if you were horn, or married in the family. As long as you took the Cruises oath." She paused to produce the most evilest grin.

      "Agatha Cruise? Do you have someone to Crown?"

Everyone turned to me.
     "No!" I gave a low reply, accompanied by a bitter glare.

"Well then, we'll all be on the lookout... Soon, the marked one will resurrect 'him'. And this time, he's coming back in flesh and blood."
   I shut my eyes. Wishing all of that was a nightmare. How could a family so rich and influential possibly connect itself so such dark magic?
        And from the book Athaga had written, in the eighteenth generation, he'd come back as himself through the blood of the Damned. The process of his reincarnation alone would require eighteen people. That meant sacrificing eighteen innocent humans.
     God! I wish hell would open and sink this entire family.

*cover credits goes to AngelaOnyari
💝💝💝*
Thanks to everyone who has started this book with me. Your support won't go unnoticed. Tho I don't know your names, feel appreciated. And if you want a credit, just slid a request... 😇😇